Love Burned, She Rose Unscathed

Chapter 846
Geneva was startled by the uncharacteristically serious look on her daughter's face. "M-Madge, what's wrong?"
"Come here, Mom, Dad-let's sit down and talk."
The two of them followed her to the couch, concern etched on their faces.
"Norris, Anne-you two should hear this too," Madge added.
Father and daughter exchanged a glance before obediently taking their seats. Roseanne glanced anxiously at her mother.
"Mom, what is it?"
Madge took a slow breath. “I'd remembered most things about the past already. Even if there were gaps, the memories have
come back, piece by piece. But there was one thing I could never recall how I disappeared that night, how I ended up in
Pinehollow, and how I fell into the river... Until yesterday."
Yesterday?
New Year's Eve?
Neely's eyes sharpened. "What happened yesterday?"

Word by word, Madge said, "I remember everything now."
"Who was it?" someone whispered.
Madge's voice was steady, unflinching. "Kathleen."
There was no self-righteous pretense, no martyr's forgiveness. Her parents had searched for her for over twenty years-they
deserved the truth.
She'd hesitated, of course. Last night, she'd barely slept. Part of her feared the truth might be too much for her parents to bear-
what if something happened to them? On the other hand, with no real evidence, would anyone believe her?
But in the end, Madge let go of those worries. Even without proof, she knew her parents would believe her, no matter what.
She was right.

Neely slammed his hand down on the coffee table, making the teacups rattle. "How could she do this? What did the Rodriguez
family ever do to deserve this? Unforgivable!"
His whole body was shaking with rage, his face twitching in helpless fury.
Geneva, meanwhile, sat in a silence that was almost deathly. But Roseanne could
see her mother's hands trembling uncontrollably beneath her sleeves.
"I knew it-I knew it!" Geneva's voice broke, her teeth clenched. "I suspected her back then, but I had no proof. If I'd known... if I'd
known, I would've wrung the truth from her whatever it took, even ifit cost me my life!"

By the end, Geneva was crying, her words laced with grief, regret, and fury—all the pain and restraint of so many years welling
up at once.
"Mom, please don't do this to yourself," Madge pleaded, moving to her side, rubbing her back, trying to calm her down. "I'm here
now. I came back. She's not worth a single tear, or an ounce of your anger."
Neely echoed her, voice trembling. "You have to breathe, Geneva. Don't let this make Madge regret telling us the truth."
That finally steadied Geneva. Of course-Madge's confession hadn't come easily. If she fell ill, or worse, because of this, what
kind of burden would that place on her daughter?
Geneva drew a deep breath. "I'm fine. Aberdeen, don't worry. We're all right, okay?"
Madge nodded, her eyes red. "We're all right. I promise."
Nearby, Norris's fists were clenched so tightly his knuckles cracked. "This was... this was attempted murder!"
Roseanne pressed her lips into a thin line. She never imagined Kathleen had played a part in her in had
mother's disappearance. No-mone
than just a part. For more than twenty years, she'd been the cause of all this pain, the one who kept them apart.
With the Rodriguez family's influence, if only they'd known the truth sooner, they might have saved Madge in time. She wouldn't
have been lost for decades, and her parents wouldn't have suffered all these years.

Geneva turned to Neely. "Now you
know why, all these years, I kept my distance from Kathleen. I never had proof, and I tried to find it, but I always came up empty.
Still, I
vel.n?
trusted my gut-a mother's intuition is seldom wrong."